To construct automatic machines in general as listed below, controllers such as a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) or a motion controller are used.                Machine Tool used in a field of FA (Factory Automation)        Industrial automatic machine such as an industrial robot        Autonomous robot        General-purpose automatic machine such as automated facility of various types.        
In such controllers, various types of input devices such as sensors and switches for inputting signals to the controller are connected. Similarly, various types of output devices such as motors and displays controlled by the controller are connected. Further, a program that describes commands (instructions) to those input and output devices is installed in the controller. The automated machine operates as the commands (instructions) described in the program are transmitted to the input and output devices.
The above input and output devices are respectively connected to input and output connectors of the controller (that is, input and output ports). In a case of using a conventional controller, a program creator needed to accurately grasp which types of input and output devices are (were) connected to which of the input and output ports (order numbers thereof) of the controller. Settings of software modules and operation programs for the device to be used in the controller were accurately performed with such prerequisite. Without doing so, the controller cannot otherwise perform accurate control by sending appropriate commands (instructions) to the device. Notably, the software modules for the device include a device driver, for example.
Conventionally, to construct and manage a system for an automatic machine, a programmable controller and various types of devices (sensor, vision sensor, robot, servo motor, inverter, and the like) need to be connected to each other, and device drivers for controlling them needs to be provided in the programmable controller and the various types of devices. Due to this, work such as connection of the various types of devices, setting installation for the various types of devices and the programmable controller, and reactivation upon a trouble occurrence is performed by a worker at an operation site of the system of the automatic machine, however, with increased numbers of the various types of devices, work cost incurred for the setup and reactivation upon the trouble occurrence increases.
As a method to reduce the work cost upon constructing the system, an invention that utilizes a plug-and-play function, which is a mechanism that allows a connected device represented by a USB or IEEE1394 to be used without having a user perform any special setting, to the programmable controller has been devised. A GUID (Global Unique Identifier) is an identifier that is capable of uniquely identifying a device without any overlap worldwide, and Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique in which the GUID of the connected device is collected, and a device driver, which is a collection of software modules and setting information such as device parameters required for the device identified by the collected GUID, is automatically linked and made available.